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Thread: Dusk leopard

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    Default Dusk leopard

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    A young male leopard just after sunset in the Sabi Sands.

    Canon 7D, 300mm lens.
    Settings were f5, 1/160s, ISO800.

    Light was quite low so made best with the settings I could. In pp, I cropped a little top and LHS, sharpened, added some contrast, did slight noise reduction in Lightroom.

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    Stunning, striking, awesome! Great sharpness and detail, and subtle yet powerful color palette.

    I'd suggest trying to loose some of the brightness in the lightest area on the right. Some of it might be cropped out but I love the area above it and would hate to lose it.

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Very nice portrait. Detail and sharpness on the face look good, especially given the slow ss. I would try burning the highlights on the chest area a bit and also try to tone down the brightest white spot in the bg on the rhs a bit. I would also prefer a little bit more room above.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Laura,
    quite lovely portrait of the leopard, overall sharpness and detail looks good .
    Composition works nice, but i would have not cropped the way you did,instead i would crop a bit from RHS and bottom. I feel it is a bit tight on top and LHS.
    Colors look just right, likewise the overall tonality.Maybe toning down the bright area in LRC can help.
    But i bet , that someone i know, will say the blacks are choked. - Plus one from here. Think you have gone to far , with them.

    Overall i like it a lot.
    TFS Andreas

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Laura, nice to see you posting and I wish you would post more, as you have some lovely images and it would be great to have more of a 'Global' audience to appreciate them & feedback.

    But i bet , that someone i know, will say the blacks are choked
    Oooh Andreas...

    Seriously Laura unless you need to, I would ease off adding any Contrast or Black if you have done, personal choice, but when I do, it is only a very little for the reasons stated above. If you are using ACR or LR just make sure the two triangles in the Histogram are dark grey, if they are any other colour click on the triangle and it should highlight which slider to adjust.

    So if you go into Brightness/contrast and add say +4 brightness & -20 contrast it just opens things up, not ideal and you may wish to mask some of the brighter whites, but I think it helps? Numbers optional.

    Re, 'the hotspots', a quick fix is to sample an area of BKG that is light in colour and not too strong, make a new layer & fill it in with this colour, apply a black mask (to reveal) and with a white brush at say 40% Opacity paint loosely over the area, don't be too specific, then you can build up the colour, if you go over the subject change the paint brush to black, smaller brush at 100% and paint over to 'conceal'. I'll send you an example. If you have applied any sharpening on the whiskers, mainly to the RHS as viewed, I personally might ease off?

    I like it as presented, but I agree that some more space above would be good and suggest 1024 x 724px, basically as is with more space above.

    Personally I think you are borderline with the techs, I know Morkel might suggest a higher ISO for a slightly better DOF which I would agree on, but I also have reservations on the 7D.

    Hope this helps, look forward to more.

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Thanks for the feedback all, I am going to have a go at suggestions, and recrop slightly. Steve , I will try and post more :)
    You are right tho- black are clipped, and definitely not happy with anything above 800 on the 7D if I can make do with less. Will push 1250 but only at night really, when shooting with only a spotlight.

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    Lovely image and good textures, I would tone down the red/orange. Nice one Laura!

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    Magnificent leopard. Lots of excellent suggestions but I agree with Dumay on toning down the red just a tiny bit.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    You received some excellent feedback already, Laura. I love the overall luminosity and "feel" here...gorgeous soft light and great detail in those eyes.
    My biggest "agreements" are:
    1. toning down brightest parts of the bokeh and chest
    2. reducing the reds
    3. bringing back some detail from blacks
    4. needing to see more of your posts here!
    Morkel Erasmus

    WEBSITE


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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Hi Laura, good attentive stare, and just love the detail on the head. Lots of great advice from above, but my main point would be to reduce the reds.

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